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By means of a retrospective study with an analysis of the data of 12,743 postmortem examinations over a period of 10 years 630 autopsy cases have been ascertained which had a connection to an insurer. Considerable differences in the reaction and behaviour in the event of damage have been found between public and private insurers. In the course of preliminary investigations by professional/trade associations or pension offices in general an immediate and consistent reaction for this group of insured persons--which has been recorded "purely accidentally"--is to be observed through initiating or analysing of postmortem investigations. Quite in contrast to these findings private insurers to only a small percentage made use of their contractual possibilities of a postmortem control and--if at all--mostly delayed, especially in those cases where the costs of such an investigation were to be debited to the insurer's account. In most cases private insurers made use of the results of postmortems by scientific organisations, courts or professional associations. According to the results of an examination following the rules of forensic medicine of postmortem findings an insurance contract conditions, in more than 50 p. c. of the cases the medical preconditions for the performance of the insurance contract had to be denied. A critical comment should follow: in quite a number of undisclosed cases a regulation of accident and life insurance claims is carried through in which unfounded decisions are taken without any postmortem controls.

A majority of the population in industrialized countries does its work while sitting. The necessity of morphologically and physiologically adapting body-supporting systems to the human body cannot be limited to the use of traditional body measurements and certain inclination angles. An investigation of the sitting-pressure distribution is also necessary. The instruments developed for this purpose, the pressure-measuring chair and the sitting pressure simulator, are presented, and their results illustrated by specific examples. As a result of these investigations, sitting-pressure distribution and sitting behaviour have become test-criteria for the suitability of sears, office chairs, etc.